ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

official mediators that were agreed upon in the 1990’s to find a solution to the conflict.
These three are Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE. The OSCE representative has in recent
years been an American, so we have a role as well. The problem is that Russia and
Ukraine both are not impartial to the conflict. Many of the Slavic speakers in
Transnistria, for example, are ethnic Ukrainians. There are more of them than of the
Russians. So Kiev says it politically cannot impose very stringent sanctions because it
would be punishing its own ethnic brethren. The Russians use a similar line. For the
Russians, Transnistria provides sort of an outpost of influence in the region. True, Russia
and Transnistria are not contiguous, but there are many economic and political links
nonetheless. It is also a symbolic issue for Russian nationalists. Zhirinovsky visited
Transnistria several times to show his allegiance to the Russian population.
Q: How does Romania fit in?
PERINA: Romania has a big interest in all of Moldova because it sees it as historically a
part of Romania. There is a Romanian province of Moldova-Wallachia, and it was really
one region in the middle Ages. Bessarabia fell under Russian control during the time of
Katherine the Great and has thus been part of Russia or the Soviet Union for over two
centuries, with the exception of the twenty-year period between World War I and World
War II when it was part of Romania. So it is an ancient and disputed territory—a little
like Macedonia in the Balkans which is an independent country but also has historic links
to the Macedonian region of Greece. There were Romanian nationalists on both sides of
the Moldovan-Romanian border calling for unification with Romania. But in my time and
in recent years only about 10% of the population favors unification with Romania, and all
the Slavic speakers oppose it so it would just lead to another war. Now a further
complication is that Transnistria was really not a part of Bessarabia historically but rather
a part of Ukraine. It was part of the border changes that Stalin implemented to make
escape of ethnic republics from the Soviet Union less likely. He took the southern tip of
Bessarabia and gave it to Ukraine, and he took Transnistria from Ukraine and gave it to
Moldova to create a kind of interlocking jigsaw puzzle. He did this in the Caucasus as
well, and it accounted for many of the regional conflicts when the Soviet Union broke up.
Q: Did you have any problem getting the appointment to be Ambassador?
PERINA: No. The hearings were straightforward and everything went well. The
clearance process is of course long but it gave me time to study Romanian and brush up
my Russian so that was not a problem.
Q: Who had been Ambassador before you?
PERINA: A fellow named Todd Stewart who was an economics officer. He was the
second Ambassador and I was the third.
Q: Let’s talk about what American interests were when you went out there?
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